Residents of the East African Community (EAC) will now be charged local rates while entering public tourist sites.
The decision by the Council of Ministers has been extended to hotels and other tourist accommodation establishments.
Although not entirely new, the move is intended to bolster the key economic sector for the region severely hit by Covid-19 pandemic.
"This is based on the premise that our intra-regional tourism market is ripe", said the EAC secretary general Peter Mathuki.
He said the measure was among efforts lately being taken to provide "the best back-stopping" in case of future shocks.
The outbreak of Covid-19 saw tourist numbers in the EAC dropping steeply to 2.25 million last year from 6.9million in 2019, causing a loss of $4.8billion.
He revealed this on Saturday when he graced the opening of the first EAC Regional Tourism Expo 2021.
Dr.Mathuki added that the EAC was also planning to undertake a major regional and domestic tourism campaign in the region.
He implored on the partner states' governments to seriously diversify their tourism products. now largely focussed on wildlife.
These include convention tourism,cultural tourism and sports tourism and hailed Tanzania for launching a Golf Tourism campaign.
"Multi-destination tourism packages would encourage visitors to travel to more than one EAC partner state in a single trip", he said.
On Covid-19, he disclosed that an EACPass has been developed in order to build trust on foreign tourists eager to visit the region.
The EACPass integrates all the partner states' Covid-19 test results and certificates to ensure safe and seamless travel across the bloc.
He added that work is ongoing to integrate the EACPass with other international surveillance systems such as the EUPass.
During the three-day Tourism Expo, which ends today,demonstrations would be made on how the EACPass works.
The EACPass would facilitate the travel industry to get back to normal while keeping people safe in the wake of the pandemic.
The presence of South Sudan,the world's youngest nation, was a centre of attraction at the Expo taking place at the TGT Grounds outside Arusha city.
The country's minister for Wildlife Conservation and Tourism Rizik Z. Hassan said the country was open for business despite the perennial security challenges.
Tourist attractions in South Sudan include the vast Bandingilo National Park which, according to him,hosts the largest wildlife migration in the world.
Several other national parks in the country provided habitat for large populations of hartebeest,kob, topi, buffalo, elephants, giraffes and lions.
The minister for Natural Resources and Tourism Dr. Damas Ndumbaro said this was the first regional tourism event to be hosted in Tanzania.
He said next year, the country should expect more high profile delegates during the World Tourism conference to be organized in Arusha by the United Nations.
On his part, Kenya Chief Administrative Secretary Joseph Boinnet warned of the invasion of wildlife sanctuaries by human activities.
"Wildlife resources in the EA region are facing increasing demands for farmland by communities", he pointed out.
He implored potential investors in tourism to invest in areas that will ensure wildlife resources "are managed sustainably".
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